Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1703505 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

Customer Reviews

The Normandie. From luxury liner to scene of the crime.
Normandie: A Scandal on Pier 88 is listed as Fiction/Historical. This wonderful telling of a waterfront crime is a true account of the scandal that rocked New York City in the late 1940s. When I read fiction, no matter how gripping, I'm always aware it came out of some author's imagination; however, "Normandie" came directly out of the author's memory and not only could have happened, it most assuredly did. When Truman Capote wrote "In Cold Blood" he declared it a new genre: Non-fiction fiction. Or, a non-fiction novel. Dominick Dunne wrote "A Season in Purgatory" changing the names of victim Martha Moxley and presumed murderer Michael Skakel. Yet, the account was true. These books have one thing in common: Names have been changed but facts have not been altered.
How can I be so sure with Normandie? Well, I may have been a teenager but I followed the news closely. I attended school with the daughter of the leading character in this true story of what rocked the harbor. Her classmates said nothing but our empathy was high. This book captures the feel of those post-war years in New York City as surely as "Law and Order" captures today's city streets. You'll read names, real names, of Mafia kingpins and crooked lawyers (no innocents to protect there), you'll visit the streets where guns for hire hung out and murders took place on a whim or a staircase. Everything in this book can be verified someplace "on the record," but would surely turn dull in its legalese. Mr. Hipkiss has pulled it all together into a story as warm as the bread baking in the oven while neighborhood families said Grace before dinner. It's family life at its best within tragedy at its worst. I'll read this book again!

A tragedy, but not a scandal
I'm sorry to say this, but if this book purports to be anything but fiction, it is misleading potential readers. The Normandie was not sabotaged by anyone. The fire that destroyed it was a stupid accident, nothing more. I say this on the basis of studying more than 2,000 pages of FBI reports which I personally obtained under the Freedom of Information Act while writing my book "Normandie, Her Life and Times." It was my great hope that there was some scandal, some crime, some sabotage, but none of these words apply to the Normandie's fate. I have read literally dozens of direct eye-witness accounts and they agree with the way the fire and the later sinking occurred. What I have said is not to be construed as a review of this book, only of the notion that some kind of scandal was involved in the Normandie's demise.